Alien: Covenant sound recordist Oscar winner Ben Osmo reveals his work on new movie
OSCAR-winner Ben Osmo reveals how he terrified actors on set of Alien: Covenant by creating the frightening creature’s roar for star director Ridley Scott.
Manly
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- Mad Max: Fury Road sound man scoops Oscar
- Ben Osmo thanks family and colleagues after being cut off at Oscars
THEY say that in space, no one can hear you scream – but a Northern Beaches man made sure all the sounds on the new Alien movie were perfectly scary.
Ben Osmo, of Narrabeen, who won an Oscar for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road, was the sound recordist on the new Alien: Covenant movie, starring Michael Fassbender.
He revealed he even created the roar of the terrifying creatures – including the new neomorph alien – to play out on set for legendary director Ridley Scott.
“We recorded a couple of cast members yelling and screaming. I slowed the sound down and combined it with other sounds to make a guide for the alien roar and also the neomorph,” he said.
“There were many times he asked me to make up sounds and play them on set via a PA to motivate the cast and camera movement.”
Osmo also played sound effects on location in Milford Sound in New Zealand and at Fox Studios in Sydney.
“Some were either effects like gunfire, explosions and screams that I had already recorded on set,” he said.
“Then I manipulated them, slowed them down etc and changed them into other sounds, just to motivate actions on cues.”
Osmo has worked on many big-name movies, including Strictly Ballroom, Babe and Dead Calm. He has just wrapped on Peter Rabbit in Sydney.
Last February he scooped one of six Academy Awards given to Mad Max: Fury Road for his sound work.
He called his win “an out of body experience.” But he didn’t get to make a speech so the Manly Daily gave him a second chance when he arrived home.
Mona Vale actor Tess Haubrich, who went to Pittwater High and appeared in Wolverine is also in the movie as a crew member.
ALIEN INFO
■ The first film, Alien, starring Sigourney Weaver, came out in 1979
■ It was followed by Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alient Ressurection (1997)
■ Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Alien vs. Predator Requiem (2007) were also spin-offs.
■ Prometheus (2012) and the new Alien: Covenant are both prequels to the space-set stories
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